PhD in Geography / Tropical Conservation and Development / African Studies, University of Florida, 1995

M.A. in International Economics / Social Change and Development, Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, 1989

B.A. in International Relations, Carleton College , 1986

Recent Courses:

AFS 4935: African Environmental Issues

GEA 3600: Geography of Africa

In My Own Words

Dr. Andrew Noss is a cultural ecologist, focusing on human-environment interactions. He grew up in Cameroon and Nigeria. For his dissertation research at UF he studied Ba Aka subsistence and local bushmeat hunting in the Dzanga Sangha Reserve in the Central African Republic. Subsequently he spent 15 years with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS, www.wcs.org) in Bolivia and Ecuador, implementing community wildlife and landscape conservation programs, emphasizing close collaboration among national park authorities, local governments, indigenous and campesino organizations and communities, universities, and conservation and development NGOs. From 2007-2011 he supervised the “Integrated Management of Indigenous Lands” project that included partnerships with 20 indigenous organizations and local and international NGOs in Ecuador and Colombia. Most recently he advised WCS and the national park service INDEFOR in Equatorial Guinea on management plans for protected areas to be implemented with support from US oil companies.

His landscape conservation programs have emphasized participatory research, community mapping, institutional strengthening, and capacity-building for indigenous and local technicians. The programs integrated an interdisciplinary team of geographers, anthropologists, biologists, veterinarians, educators, protected area managers, hunters, local indigenous researchers, community members, and leaders of indigenous organizations. He has published papers on protected area and indigenous territory management, community wildlife management, sustainable wildlife use, endangered species, one world/one health, and camera trap survey methods.